Weston College ~ Tender for Catering Services

Weston College is regarded as one of the top FE colleges in the UK and won both "College of the Year" and "Overall Further Education Provider of the Year" at the 2015 Times Educational Supplement Further Education Awards. It also holds the Queens Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education with a growing portfolio of courses.

Weston College is an Ofsted outstanding college of further and higher education in Weston-super-Mare. It provides education and vocational training to nearly 30 000 learners across the country.

The college puts the learner first, and is entrepreneurial in its approach and innovative in its thinking. The college is ambitious and aspirational and is responsive to the needs of students, staff, businesses and the community.

The successful Supplier will be required to provide catering services for Weston College at the following locations:

• Knightstone Road Campus,

• Loxton Campus,

• South West Skills Campus.

Within these campuses there are a range of refectories, braded coffee outlets and also a retail unit.

The contract will commence on 1.4.2019 for a term of 3 years plus 3 years.

The contract currently operates at a return to the Client each year when taking into account all VAT liabilities etc and all FSMs and hospitality supplied to the college at cost.

It is expected that the successful Supplier will also be able demonstrate its entrepreneurial approach and how it is innovative in its thinking within the tender submission.

The contract will be operated on a guaranteed performance basis with all free issues and hospitality being recharged to the college at net cost only moving into this contract term.

It is expected that the successful Supplier will work very closely with the Client and engage with students and staff alike across all 3 campuses moving forwards into this contract term.

The Client wishes for the successful Supplier to be able to offer innovation and flair in the provision of the catering services across all 3 campuses and is happy to support some changes to the service provision within the college during the course of the new contract term. This will include ideas and innovation and how the catering service can meet the needs of the students and staff within the college.

Any inward investment should be detailed within the tender submission and also what impact this will have on the catering facilities within the college and the benefit this will bring to the catering provision.

Additional information: Interest in the selection process should be expressed via email only to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk clearly stating within this email which contract / notice you are referring to. Please also provide, as a minimum, a contact name, full company postal address and telephone number.

The Selection Questionnaire and associated documents can be obtained at: http://www.litmuspartnership.co.uk/project/weston_college

The closing date for receipt of the Selection Questionnaire is 17.12.2018 (12:00). Suppliers are required to ensure that documents are obtained and returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk by the above closing date and time.

Documents in respect of economic / financial standing (where indicated in the Selection Questionnaire) shall be returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk by the above closing date and time.

It will be the Supplier's responsibility to obtain any necessary documents in order to submit a response by the closing date and time.

The contracting authority reserves the right not to award any or part of the contract which is the subject of this Contract Notice and reserves the right to terminate the procurement process at any time.

The contracting authority will not be liable for any costs incurred by those expressing an interest in tendering for this contract opportunity.

The contracting authority will consider variant bids, evaluating them (so far as the variant or the evaluation of the variant is in the opinion of the contracting authority practicable) on the same basis as a conforming bid, but shall not be obliged to accept any such bid in preference to a conforming bid even if the variant bid scores more highly. No variant will be considered unless the bidder simultaneously submits a conforming bid.